[open]

[lumelume]

WHO: Mado and you
WHAT: where are my beloved cousins??
WHEN: whatever month this is
WHERE: the Gallows
NOTES: he's here

There's a strange man in the Gallows courtyard, a man nobody has seen before. He looks shabby, dressed in a long yellow surcoat that has seen much better days, but his face is lit with a plaintive grin as his melodic, Antivan-accented voice rings out:

"Averesk? I'm looking for Kostos, or Nikos Averesk! Have you seen them?"

It's not even entirely clear how he got here, because nobody saw him enter or leave the ferry, and this is not a person who escapes notice easily. Maybe he's a ghost. Maybe he's been living under the island this entire time.

"You there, please! I'm looking for my cousins!"

Comments

[lumelume]

"You," Mado says easily, brightening.

[exsecutus]

Silently, and without a change to his expression or breaking eye contact with Mado, Nikos points to Kostos.

[exequy]

Kostos has been glaring with sullen suspicion for this entire exchange. The alternative was having his skin start to melt off his face to reveal his skeleton at that hopeful glistening of Mado's eyes, so. Preferable really. And it's easy to continue to glare—no acting skills required—while Nikos points to him.

[lumelume]

Smiling pleasantly, Mado follows Nikos' point, considers, and shakes his head, looking back to him.

"It's in your voice," he insists.

[exsecutus]

Nikos drops his arm.

"Ooh, he's good," he says to Kostos, back in Nevarran again. "So what the fuck do we do with him?"

And as an aside, in case Mado is wondering, he adds: "We're talking about you. Make sure you stay quiet."

[lumelume]

Mado nods cheerfully, happy to oblige.

[exequy]

Kostos inclines his head, still glaring, to contemplate Mado. The glare slides slowly to something a little less irritated, more thoughtful.

"You could see if Mother and Father want him," he offers, which he would not actually do to them. "We could see if he is too old for an Abbey to take him. Or if you need a manservant..."

Obviously none of these. But he cuts back into Trade to ask Mado, "Can you do anything?"

[exsecutus]

"Fuck a dead cow," Nikos snaps when Kostos utters the word manservant. The day he takes a manservant is a day that will never come, because he would walk into the sea, and everyone knows it.

But now the sand has shifted. Such is the way of fighting with Kostos. Sulky, Nikos grabs for his wine again, takes a gulp, and turns his glare on Mado, waiting for his answer and his next chance to get a jab in at Kostos.

[lumelume]

Though it would be impossible not to notice the hostility between the twins, Mado makes no indication that he does, or that he cares.
He straightens when addressed again.
"I can sing!" he exclaims, "and dance, and do tricks!"

Even he has the wisdom to not completely show his hand.

[exequy]

If asked, he wouldn't have predicted that answer.

Having now heard it, however, it feels so predictable in hindsight that he gives into the urge to plant his elbows on the table and lower his head to hold it in his hands, fingers massaging his temples.

[exsecutus]

"Tricks," Nikos repeats. He swirls his wine in his cup, and gestures expectantly. Because it probably will cause Kostos some pain: "Show us."

It will also probably cause him some pain. That's a sacrifice he is willing to make.

[lumelume]

For the first time, Mado looks doubtful. He glances around them, then leans in to say, with a slightly sheepish air, "people don't like when I do it inside."

He straightens. "But if you're willing to go out, we can do it there!"

[exequy]

"Andraste's sword," is in Nevarran, but the first word at least is recognizable in any language. He downs the rest of his drink. In preparation for going outside, as much as because he needs it. They might as well see what they're dealing with.

[exsecutus]

Smirking, Nikos finishes off the rest of his wine as well and shoves back from the table. He will probably not enjoy this any more than Kostos, but at least he gets to enjoy Kostos being annoyed.

Once they're outside, he turns expectantly to Mado with his arms folded over his chest.

"Well?"

[lumelume]

Mado barely hesitates before he's upside down, walking on his hands with a truly uncanny fluency. He rests on one to flourish the other in a mock, mirror-image bow, then, without putting his other hand back down, easily half-cartwheels back onto his feet.

"Thank you for stopping, ladies and gentlemen, to witness the talents and mysteries of the great Volpinello!" he crows, speaking not only to the twins, but to any other shady types who may be passing.
"What's this behind your ear, Signore? A silver you've left tucked into your hat?"
He produces such a coin, clear as day, from a bewildered drunkard whose face indicates he's about to think he's just been robbed. Prepared for this reaction, Mado beams.
"Worry not, Signore, for I shall return it, if you'll only give me your hand!"

When the man does so, he receives a firm shake with the hand holding the silver; and when he draws his own back, it now contains a walnut.
Luckily for everyone, he's too drunk to do anything but stare at it.

[exequy]

“Maker,” Kostos says at the hand walking, and then at the rest he says nothing at all, only hopes that the slight resemblance between them is invisible to anyone passing by who doesn’t know to look for it.

Into the silence following the production of the walnut, he says, “Uncle Manetto.”

That’s his prediction, based on hazy 20-plus-year-old memories about which of their relatives was the most ridiculous.

[exsecutus]

Nikos has leaned up against the wall of the tavern, unwilling to trust himself to remain upright. He grunts at Kostos' guess, first.

"Only has daughters," he counters, after a second of observation. The drunk man is now gawping at Mado, and then at the walnut, and then at Mado again, utterly perplexed by this development. "Could be his wife's fault. She's stubborn enough. Frustrated, he strays... gets himself a half-wit."

And before Mado can do too much more, he shoves away from the wall and goes to grab him by the elbow.

"All right, we believe you. Let him keep that walnut, don't grab it. What do you want us to do with you?"

[lumelume]

Although surprised by the abruptness with which Nikos stills him, Mado isn't upset by it, instead seeming to spring right back to the same pleasant attentiveness as before.

"Do with me?" he asks blithely, "I just wanted to meet you, cousin. Both of you!"

[exequy]

Kostos spreads his arms at his sides, equal parts helplessness and an at your service sort of gesture, while the drunk man begins trying to crack the walnut on the wall beyond Mado.

"You've met us. I am sure it was everything you dreamed it would be. Now what?"

[exsecutus]

"We're terrible," Nikos adds to that recommendation. "Fucking arseholes. Kostos is the worst of the two of us. Do you want an introduction to one of the men who might be your father? We can guess. Invite him here. See what happens. Otherwise we--"

He gestures to himself and Kostos, very large and exaggerated.

"--are with Riftwatch. And busy. And there is only so much space."

Not true. The Gallows is a Maker-damned vault of space. Mado could have his own wing. Please, let him go back to Antiva.

[lumelume]

For the first time, the smile diminishes. Surely-- surely they have more to talk about?

"Well I want," he stammers, with an edge of urgency, "...well what I want is to know you!" Looking between them, his pleading eyes bear a striking resemblance to a dog begging for scraps.

[exequy]

A dog, Kostos might give scraps. He likes dogs, and dogs generally can’t help themselves. Even when they’re idiots, he can’t hold it against them.

So if he decides not to hold anything against Mado, it won’t be a compliment.

“What is the process for that,” he says, and it sure would be nice if someone were here to be on Mado’s side and point out that the twins are the worst and wanting to get to know your relatives is actually completely reasonable, but they aren’t—“exactly?”

[exsecutus]

Nikos--who does not like dogs, but does have a grudging sympathy for hopeless cases, and so is coming at this from the other angle, in a way--should maybe be content to let Kostos do the talking. He's said pretty much all that there is to say.

But they've been vying for the last word since before they could talk, so--

"We're shit at being known. Allergies."

[lumelume]

It has never been this difficult for Mado to endear himself to anyone, with the exception, of course, of the elf side of his family. It's a familiar feeling of rejection, but somehow less personal-- they barely know each other, after all-- and therefore, hope can be maintained.

"You know," he persists, "eating together, drinking, spending time in the evenings-- you're very busy of course, but I promise, I can be invisible until you want me there!" The cuffs of his yellow sleeves are bunched up in his anxious hands.

[exequy]

Invisible until they want him there seems like a big thing to promise, considering it’s already not true. But it might at least be interesting to see what that means in practice. Maybe it will mean Mado disappears forever.

(I’m so sorry. I love him.)

Kostos doesn’t say any of that. He only looks at Nikos, sullen but resigned.